Ireland manager Martin O'Neill has claimed that he deserved to be awarded a new contract after securing qualification for next month's European Championships.

However, six months later there has still been no concrete resolution to what he says have been daily talks on the issue with FAI chief executive John Delaney but he has stressed that neither money nor the desire for a long-term deal are a priority for him.

"Do I feel as if we have earned the right to at least talk about extending here, then absolutely? John feels the same, which is great. Sometimes things will fall into place if you do well. I want to do well," said O'Neill.

There have been reports that O'Neill's salary could increase by up to 50pc from its current €1m but the FAI may be reluctant given previous experiences with international managers and, with O'Neill constantly linked to club vacancies, they may hold fire.

"Sometimes you don't want to outstay your welcome," added O'Neill. "At the time if you said after we qualified, do you deserve it, I'd have said absolutely but now we are coming into a new competition. You can't wait forever.

"So now you're coming in and you're judged again and that's right because that's the name of this game. You are judged again on the next couple of matches coming up.

"I don't want to be sitting here with a great sense of contentment that I've done something and then find that I'm flummoxed. Sometimes things fall into place if you've done well. It's not about the money."